Christopher Lyon

Fellow, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity

Supervisor to PhD student, Andrew Gibson

Anthropocene Biodiversity

christopher.lyon@york.ac.uk

Biography

I am an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist passionate about integrating natural and social science, and the humanities in ways that help society to understand and navigate Anthropocene challenges, especially in the long-term. I have previously worked on the social dimensions of climate, food security, natural resource, disaster, and ecosystem challenges. LCAB provides a highly unique and exciting opportunity to work with very diverse but inclusive set of researchers from the humanities, social, and natural sciences across a common set of themes.

I have held postdoctoral positions at McGill University and the University of Leeds, with a PhD in Geography from the University of Dundee.

Research

My research at LCAB explores multi-century human-environmental futures on Earth and ways to plan for those futures now. It builds on the outputs of a White Rose University Consortium funded project I led at Leeds, called Refugia of Futures Past. Here, we modelled different climate change scenarios to the year 2500, together with vegetation, heat stress, and crop changes to begin to broadly picture the kinds of futures we might have to adapt to. Our aim was to provide some initial and indicative research to understand the kinds of climate futures our grandchildren may face. Our work was published in Global Change Biology and The Conversation, receiving international news and science media interest.

Publication Highlights

Zurek, M., Ingram, J., Sanderson Bellamy, A., Goold, C., Lyon, C., Alexander, P., Barnes, A. P., Bebber, D., Breeze, T., Bruce, A., Collins, L. M., Davies, J., Doherty, B., Ensor, J., Franco, S., Gatto, A., Hess, T., Lamprinopoulou, C., Liu, L., Merkle, M., Norton, L., Oliver, T., Ollerton, J., Potts, S., Reed, M.S., Sutcliffe, C. &  Withers, P. (2022). Food system resilience: Concepts, issues and challenges. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 47( In press).

Lyon, C., Saupe, E. E., Smith, C. J., Hill, D. J., Beckerman, A. P., Stringer, L. C., Marchant, R., McKay, J., Burke, A., O’Higgins, P., Dunhill, A. M., Allen, B. J., Riel‐Salvatore, J. & Aze, T. (2022). Climate change research and action must look beyond 2100. Global Change Biology, 28(2), 349–361.

Stringer, L. C., Fraser, E. D. G., Harris, D., Lyon, C., Pereira, L., Ward, C. F. M. & Simelton, E. (2020). Adaptation and development pathways for different types of farmers. Environmental Science & Policy, 104, 174–189.

Fazey, I., Wise, R. M., Lyon, C., Câmpeanu, C., Moug, P. & Davies, T. E. (2016). Past and future adaptation pathways. Climate and Development, 8(1), 26–44.

Lyon, C. & Parkins, J. R. (2013). Toward a Social Theory of Resilience: Social Systems, Cultural Systems, and Collective Action in Transitioning Forest-Based Communities. Rural Sociology, 78(4), 528–549.

Funder

• The Leverhulme Trust